People who illegally share music files online are also big spenders on legal music downloads, research suggests.
Digital music research firm The Leading Question found that they spent four and a half times more on paid-for music downloads than average fans.
Rather than taking legal action against downloaders, the music industry needs to entice them to use legal alternatives, the report said.
According to the music industry, legal downloads have tripled during 2005.
In the first half of 2005, some 10 million songs have been legally downloaded.
Music 'myth'
More needs to be done to capitalise on the power of the peer-to-peer networks that many music downloaders still use, said the report's authors.
The study found that regular downloaders of unlicensed music spent an average of £5.52 a month on legal digital music.
This compares to just £1.27 spent by other music fans.
